1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for displaying font information of a word processor, and more particularly, relates to an apparatus and method for displaying font information by using a preview window of a word processor, which provides promptly finding a desirable font and effective making up a document by promptly showing a font sample through a preview window when a user makes up a document by using a word processor.
2. Background of the Related Art
Recently, as computer technology has been widely spread, many applications have been increasingly developed. One of these applications is a word processor. The structure of a conventional hardware of the computer system for executing the word processing job is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Generally, functions which the computer performs are input/output of data and data processing, and they can be itemized as shown in FIG. 3. As it is generally known, the detailed description is omitted.
In the above-mentioned word processor, a user inputs a character after specifying a character shape by using an offered font from the word processor. For example, when the user selects "Arial" before inputting the character, all characters input into an inputting unit are input with a font corresponding to "Arial".
Recently, the kinds and numbers of fonts provided by the word processor are very diverse and increased, respectively. For executing the word processing job, it is required that the user can select a desirable font previous to actually generating characters via the keyboard. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,495,577 to Mark E. Davis et al. entitled System For Displaying Insertion Text Based On Preexisting Text Display Characteristics, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,931 to Russell Sonnenschein entitled System For Applying Font Style Changes to Multi-Script Text.
Generally, however, there are two methods for selecting fonts as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. First, as shown in FIG. 4, the user can select the desirable font using a font name through a font selecting combo box and a list box, wherein font names are arranged therein. The other method for selecting the desirable font is explained with referring to FIG. 5. The user can select the desirable font after confirming the font through a dialog box, which shows the font shape to be selected previously, as shown in FIG. 5. The feature of FIG. 5 is known in WordPerfect 8 for example.
In the first font selecting method using the font names, when the kinds of fonts are limited, all shapes of the fonts are memorized in a dictionary. Accordingly, the user can select the desirable font. But, recently, according to diversity of the kinds of fonts, it is a big burden for the user to select the font by using the font name.
In the mean time, for reducing the burden of the first font selecting method using the font name, the font is selected with previewing the font shape as shown in FIG. 5. Nevertheless, the word processing job is delayed because the user has to open the dialog box every time for selecting the desirable font.
Additionally, it is known that CorelDRAW.TM.7 and WordPerfect.RTM.8 provide a font drop down menu on a property bar of displayed tool bars by clicking on a drop down arrow of the drop down menu to display a number of available font faces for selection, similar to that shown in FIG. 4. At this time, however, a preview window opens and displays characters of the current, or default, font, which differs from FIG. 4. By moving the pointer over and highlighting any of the displayed font faces, character samples of the selected font are displayed in the preview box, however the preview box does not change in size. The current font can then be changed to the font of the highlighted font face by clicking on the highlighted font face using the mouse.